ASA Adjudication on Stammering Cure

Ad

A website, on 5 April 2011, with the url www.stammeringcure.org. Text stated "... Discover how to stop stuttering with stammering cure that works ... You can Click Here Now to check out one thing that really helped me with my stammer ...". A number of hyperlinks on the website led to www.killyourstutter.com, a site which advertised a product that claimed to cure a stutter.

Issue

The British Stammering Association challenged whether the name and content of the website was misleading, because it was not possible to cure a stammer.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

Response

Stammering Cure did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA was concerned by Stammering Cure's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.

We noted that Stammering Cure had not provided evidence that showed they could cure a stammer. We therefore considered that the claim had not been substantiated, and concluded the ad was misleading.

Investigated under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.7 (Unreasonable delay), 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation), 12.1 and 12.6 (Medicines, medical devices, health-related products and beauty products).

Action

The ad must not appear in its current form again. We referred the matter to CAP's compliance team.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)